Warhammer Online Interview, Part 1

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General Manager Robin Dews on the intriguing persistent state partnership of Games Workshop and Climax

By Richard Aihoshi - 'Jonric'

The Empire and Orc armies can easily see each other across the grassland between, their views only slightly obstructed by a village rapidly abandoned by residents none too eager to be caught in the impending battle. A resounding blast from the former side's Great Cannon signals the start of the hostilities, and the ensuing detonation tears a hole in the enemy line. Meanwhile, a company of spearmen advances, taking the initiative to seize the hamlet. On the right flank, two brigades of knights move forward in support, their armor gleaming, while hand gunners and pistoliers protect the left. The Orcs are undaunted. The gap is quickly filled by more hulking Warriors carrying huge iron blades and axes. Wolf cavalry bound forward, each snarling canine carrying a menacing Goblin Rider. And their catapults will soon be in range to fire.

Thus begins an engagement in Warhammer, the popular Games Workshop tabletop fantasy property that provides the basis for Warhammer Online, the persistent state world project also involving UK-based developer Climax. While the original is a war game wherein players controlling armies comprised of models seek to best each other in turn-based clashes, the online title is reported to be much more oriented toward RPG-style aspects of gameplay such as character development. While keeping our eyes open for news and information over the past months, we've learned a fair bit, and also come up with a lot of questions we wanted to ask. As a result, we were pleased when we received the opportunity to put our queries to General Manager Robin Dews who, as you can see, was eager to fill us in on his very interesting venture.

Jonric: As an introduction, what kind of game is Warhammer Online, and what's its underlying premise or concept?

Robin Dews: Warhammer Online is a massively multiplayer online game - an MMOG. You might want to call it a role-playing game, but I still associate role-playing with games where you sit around a table with a group of friends and have the freedom to literally explore a world in your imagination. Most computer RPGs have taken the nametag and the concept, but rarely ever delivered the goods.

The underlying premise of the game is that we wanted to take a slice of the Warhammer world and "make it real". As an idea, as a world and as a gaming background, Warhammer has been around for over 20 years now. Throughout that time, Games Workshop has been developing the world through tabletop games, role-play games, miniatures, artwork and fiction to make it one of the most fully realized gameworlds outside of Tolkien's Middle Earth.

Jonric: How much of the tabletop world and what kinds of gameplay do you plan to incorporate into Warhammer Online?

Robin Dews: As a world, Warhammer is simply far too big to realize within a single game and so we've taken a slice from the heart of the Empire and are recreating it in loving detail complete with a host of locations, characters, monsters and events. We will then offer this landscape up to our players as an interactive environment within which they can adventure, fight, trade and die in the company of thousands of other gamers. Those three words - adventure, fight and trade - really summarize the core of the gameplay and how the players can interact with the world.

This is best shown in the form of a diagram:

The Fight area of the game is where you take your sword and head out alone or with a group of players and kill things! Its dangerous, brutal and lots of fun...

The Trade area will allow you to exploit the underlying economic model. You'll find that some commodities are cheaper in some parts of the map than others. If you can buy, move and sell them, you should be able to make money. These items will range from food and cloth to guns and possibly illegal items!

The Adventure area of the gameplay is when you follow pre-scripted storylines to achieve a specific goal. These will range from simple single-node quests - take this package to X - to rather more complex multi-threaded adventures.

Of course the overlapping area of the diagram is where it all starts to get rather more interesting. Where Fight overlaps with Adventure, you will have to go out and kill a specific creature or creatures in order to move the storyline forward. Where Adventure overlaps with Trade, you'll be following a storyline that leads you toward some monetary reward, and where Fight overlaps with Trade, you'll be killing things with the express aim of looting and increasing your wealth.

And of course, right at the centre of the diagram we have the core game play, where all three elements interact to create what we hope to be a truly exciting and immersive experience.

Jonric: Before we leave the tabletop game, what would you list as the main influences on its design?

Robin Dews: Main influences on the design... where would you like to start? The art of Bosch, Durer and Albrecht Altdorfer, European mediaeval history from 1200-1650, the writings of Shakespeare, Howard, Morcock and Tolkien, the films of Terry Gilliam and Monty Python. From the beginning, Warhammer has always been a cheerful melange of the serious and the absurd - dark horror and even darker humour - and our aim is to create a game that plunges our players into a visually stunning re-creation of this world and excites, entertains and inspires them - a tall order indeed!